You'll Always Have a Home
by darkangel9314
Summary: When Elena finds Damon Salvatore in the forest she feels like she has finally found her purpose in being a social worker, but when Elena meets a teenage girl named Rayna she realizes that there are far more deadly things in this world than she had ever imagined.


You'll Always Have a Home

Chapter 1

It was a cold winter's night when Elena had found her one true passion and her soulmate in this cruel depressing world. She remembered that night as if it were yesterday.

Five years ago

There was something peaceful about forest that Elena didn't get as she took a walk in the woods trying to clear her head and get her mind off of things. She brushed her hands through her hair breathing in the intoxicating scent of the forest. Tears slipped down her eyes and nothing she seemed to do could stop them. Why couldn't she make them stop? She had been through a lot worse in her past seventeen years of life, so why was she crying over something so small as a breakup with a boy she hardly even liked to begin with? Sighing, Elena stopped by a nearby tree letting herself slide down it as she took in another deep breath. She hated feeling this way, she just wished that all this would stop. She placed her hand down and immediately jumped when they landed on something cold. What the hell was that? She looked down at her hand and saw blood as she looked behind the other side of the tree and gasped at what she saw.

A boy slumped on the tree with his head down and his neck bloody and raw as if something sharp had stabbed him in it. She made her way around the tree and lifted the boys head up. Oh my god, what the hell had happened to him. She rushed to pull out her phone as a hand grabbed her making her scream slightly.

"Please...Help." he whispered coughing.

Elena gasped as the boy let go of her wrist and she dug around in her bag until she found the cellphone and told 911 her location. Help would be coming soon. She just wished she knew how fast they would come.

She grabbed the boy's hand and sat beside him opening her ears until she heard the sirens approaching.

"You're gonna be alright. I promise."

The boy groaned but managed to squeeze her hand. Progress. That's what she always liked to see.

"What's your name?"

She had to keep him talking until the ambulance came. She had to make sure that he was okay. And if he wasn't she had to have the ability to answer the questions the ambulance had for her in case he was passed out cold when they arrived.

"Damon. Damon Salvatore."

"What happened to you?"

Blue eyes looked into hers as she heard the ambulance approach them, so much for that plan. A man popped out of the ambulance and opened up the back to get the stretcher. Elena was about to get up and go tell them what she had saw when Damon's hand had reached out and grabbed hers.

"Please. Don't leave me."

"I won't." she said squeezing his hand as the EMT s showed up beside them.

Elena watched in the distance as Damon was loaded into the ambulance and got in with him. She made a promise not to leave this poor soul behind and that was a promise that she intended to keep for as long as she possibly could.

That night she had stayed with Damon in the hospital. He never regained consciousness through the night and it was touch and go there for a while, but Elena hadn't left his side since she had found him that night. It wasn't until two days later when the doctors had already told her what had happened to him that Damon woke up surprised to see her sitting in a chair next to him.

"You stayed." he said weakly still trying to gain his energy back.

"What kind of a person wold I have been if I left?"

Damon smile grew bigger as she grabbed his hand.

"I'm sorry this happened to you."

"I'm sorry that you care."

"Why do you say that?"

"I've never really had anyone who really cared for me."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Why did you stay? You could have left, but you didn't."

"I made a promise."

"Not to stay with me until I woke up, so I ask again what made you stay?"

"I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"I appreciate it, but you know you could leave if you want to. You don't have to hang around me if you don't want to."

"I want to, so do me a favor and stop trying to change my mind."

They sat in silence just enjoy each others company that day and as the days that followed passed by they grew to know each other. Damon opened up to Elena about what really happened that night and what would probably continue to happen.

Damon told her about how his mother came home drunk that night blaming him yet again for his father and brother's death. Elena listened patiently as he told her that his mother had taken a bat and started to beat him with it. He had managed to escape her in the nick of time when Elena found him in the forest. He also confided in her that that wasn't his only time getting abused by his mother.

When Elena had heard about the situation she had encouraged Damon to come forth about his mother forcing him to live with complete strangers he had never really known as his mother was carted off to prison as well as arranged visits with a personal therapist. It had been years since both Elena and Damon had heard from her.

But somewhere during those troubling times, Damon and Elena had managed to fall in love and get married followed by another tragic accident that Elena still hadn't come to terms with. It was bad enough what she had to deal with as the result of that.

It still wasn't easy for Elena to deal with the fact that she couldn't have kids. She had always pictured her life as a mother, but after the accident she had seen that it was just too far out of reach for her, so she did the only thing she knew how to do. She threw herself into her work and education and graduated with a master's degree in social work where she could help people like Damon out of their bad situations. And even know knowing what she knew she wouldn't have changed anything about that, but she was getting ahead of herself. She had to start at the begging to the faithful day where she had found her. On the day where her life was changed forever.


End file.
